How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"My people. Yeah, ship breakers like the lucky eye. Not much else to hang on to when you're on the wrecks."
"Skill? Hard work?"
Nailer laughed. "They're nice. But they only get you so far. Look at you… Still born swank,"
Nailer pointed out. "Pima's mom works a thousand times harder than you and she's never going to have a life as nice as what you got on this boat." (19.122-125)
As Captain Candless asks Nailer why he wants to stay, the convo turns to class differences and why ship breakers are more likely to believe in luck than swanks, and we realize that the belief in a predetermined future is a way for the lower classes to cope with everything that they will never have. Can't have hope if the course of your life is already determined.
Quote #11
"If you were your dad, you'd be down on the beach, drinking with your friends, looking for a girl to keep you company tonight, and feeling pleased with yourself. You wouldn't be up here worrying about why you don't feel worse." (25.20)
Nailer continues to worry that his dad's genes will pop up at the most inopportune times. But Sadna sets him straight; Nailer is far more compassionate and empathic than his father. So in some way, who Richard Lopez is has affected Nailer's fate and future, just not in the ways Nailer's expected.